Construction Documents Home Building: Your Last $50K Checkpoint Before Breaking Ground

William Reid: [: 00:00:00

I am Bill Reid, and today we're talking about construction documents—the final step before breaking ground. This is the closing episode of our design process series. This is where your dreams officially become a buildable reality. Let me show you how to make sure nothing gets missed.

[INTRODUCTION TO SERIES CONTEXT]

[: 00:01:00

Then we dove deep into schematic design in Episode 23, where your dreams started taking shape within design work with your architect and your designers. Episodes 24 through 26 took us through the massive world of design development, which is the core part of residential custom home design and remodels. This is where, in the design development stage, you start making commitments and your design process became more regimented and restricted, really.

[: 00:02:00

And what's really important is your contractor will use these documents to finalize the project cost. The more detailed and comprehensive they are, the less risk you're going to be taking.

[CRITICAL CHECKPOINT EXPLANATION]

But here's what I want you to understand right from the start: this step is not just a formality. This is not your architect spending a week cleaning up drawings so they look pretty for the building department. This is a critical accountability checkpoint—maybe the most important one—because once you transition from design to construction, changes become exponentially more expensive.

[: 00:03:00

Think about it this way: during schematic design, changing your mind about where the kitchen goes might cost you a few thousand dollars in design fees. During design development, that same change might cost $15,000 or $20,000 once your engineer has to redo structural calculations. But once you're in construction? Once the slab is poured and the walls are framed? That same change could cost you—who knows—$50,000 or more.

[: 00:04:00

Construction documents are your last line of defense against the nightmare stories you've heard. This is where we make absolutely certain that everything—and I mean everything—is documented, specified, and ready for your contractor to build without having to make assumptions or call you every other day with "Hey, we have a question."

So let's dive in and talk about what construction documents really are, what your architect should be doing during this phase, what your role is as a homeowner, when you should be selecting your contractor, and how to make sure you're actually ready to break ground.

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SEGMENT 1: What Are Construction Documents Really?

[: 00:05:00

Let me break down what construction documents really mean and why they matter so much. The more involved you've been in the schematic design and the design development stage, the less involved you have to be in the construction document stage. In reality, the architect and all of the consultants are offline a little bit, working on all of the plans, assembling them all for preparation for building permits. But it goes way beyond that.

[DESIGN PLANS VS. CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS]

The design plans that we've been talking about in the past and the construction documents are not really the same thing. Design plans show you what you want. Construction documents show what and how it gets built. That's the key there.

[: 00:06:00

Final construction documents are stamped and signed by your licensed professionals and ultimately are the documents that govern the project—both for permitting, for pricing and costing, for contracting with your general contractor, and for building.

All of this stuff that we've talked about all comes together in one set of plans and specifications for your project within construction documents.

Think of it this way: your design development plans are like a beautiful rendering of a car. Construction documents are the actual engineering blueprints with every bolt, wire, and system specified. One shows you what it looks like; the other shows you exactly how to build it.

[WHAT'S INCLUDED IN COMPLETE CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS]

[: 00:07:00

When I talk about a complete set of construction documents, I'm talking about a package that might include 30, 40, sometimes even 60 or more individual sheets or plan pages, depending on the size and complexity of your project. Let me walk you through what's in there.

We start with the architectural pages. As I mentioned in the past, these are the large sheets that are usually identified with an "A" and then a number sequence after that. These are your floor plans, your elevations, your sections, details, door and window schedules, finish schedules, and then notes that the architect has included within the plan page sheets to instruct your builder of what to use, where to put it, and how to use it.

[: 00:08:00

[00:09:00] As part of the structural package, there's a whole separate set of documents called structural calculations. Now, this is something that most of us don't understand, and this is because these are the technical documents that the structural engineer generated to make a determination on the sizes and the types of materials and connections based on the building code. Then the building department engineers that you eventually submit that to will be analyzing that as well to make sure that they, in fact, did interpret those calculations correctly versus the building code in your state and city.

[MEP AND SPECIALTY PAGES]

The next one is the MEP pages—the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing pages. That's also your lighting. If you want to go back and listen to some of those episodes about what goes into that, but these are now more detailed, more comprehensive plan pages that include as much information as possible on where, what, and how things go into your home. It's really important that that information is included in the plan set so that things get priced out properly, permits are issued correctly, and things are installed properly.

[: 00:10:00

[00:11:00] These are another component of the construction documents called the energy pages, energy compliance pages that go into it. Then we talked about civil engineering in the past episodes. This is primarily for new construction, but civil engineering has to do with all of the site work itself: all the grading, the drainage, the underground utilities, anything that's outside the perimeter of the structure.

Then we talk about landscape plans. Sometimes in some communities, landscape plans are required—not necessarily by the building department, but sometimes. It has to do with water conservation, but most often it's by the homeowners associations or the city planning departments that require a certain landscape plan to be executed before final occupancy to maintain the integrity of the neighborhood.

[: 00:12:00

Then all of this is covered up with a cover sheet that goes on top of all of these plan pages. That is the project information, the index of the drawings, the code analysis, the building code that everything's been designed off of, and then the general notes that the architect is conveying to the builder and to you as the homeowner about what is covered, what is not. These are important notes to read because there's a lot of CYA clauses in those general notes.

[SPECIFICATIONS DOCUMENT]

[: 00:13:00

Now, you don't necessarily have to submit a specification document to the city, but you need to have a specification document, which is, if you remember from the previous episode, all the materials, the equipment, and the scope of work that you're requiring on your project. Materials being construction and finish materials. Equipment being things like mechanical, water heating, any of that type of equipment that is operating the home. And then the scope of work, which is a narrative describing what you want done with that material and equipment.

[: 00:14:00

[REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE]

Here's an example. Once I had a homeowner tell me, "Bill, I thought we were done after design development. Why are there 20 more pages now?" Because those 20 pages contain all the code compliance information, structural calculations, and construction details that your contractor needs to actually build this thing correctly.

From a homeowner's perspective, a lot of it is not necessarily the sexy part of looking at a plan set, and frankly, a lot of the stuff you're not really going to understand, such as the architectural and structural details. But it's important for you to be able to understand that they are there.

[: 00:15:00

You don't necessarily have to know what all these details are and what's all in the construction documents, but in principle, you can ask some of those kind of fundamental questions because hopefully you're getting questions from your contractor. Your architect's getting questions from your contractor to clarify so that they can price things out or understand what was envisioned and how it's supposed to be built.

[PERMIT SUBMITTAL PACKAGE]

[: 00:16:00

We'll talk about that in a minute, but remember, in the previous episodes we had Budget Checkpoint #1, we had Budget Checkpoint #2, we had the ability to get an actual construction estimate at the end of design development. But for sure, you need to have one as you get into construction documents before you move forward. We're going to talk about that at the end of this episode about risk.

Now you might be thinking, "Okay, I get there's a lot of information in these documents, but why does it matter to me as a homeowner? Can I just let my architect handle all this?" Yes and no. Let me explain.

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SEGMENT 2: Why Completeness Matters to YOU

[: 00:17:00

It sounds a little strange, but that actually is pretty much the case. If something is omitted from the plans that should have been there for one reason or another—it could have been you forgot to tell them or they forgot to put it in—ultimately, you are the owner of the project. It's your home. You end up paying for these things. This is why you care about what I'm talking about.

[INCOMPLETE PLANS EQUAL PROBLEMS]

Incomplete plans—here's a couple things they equate to. A contractor has to make assumptions when it comes to incomplete plans. Why I want to emphasize this is because when you're a contractor and you're reviewing a set of plans and you're expected to price things out, if you start to sense that there's not enough details—and that happens a lot, way too often—there's not enough information, there's not enough material specifications or equipment specification.

[: 00:18:00

I've seen that happen. And it's not necessarily the liability of the contractor to ask you, "What is this line? What does this mean?" They're just going to go right past that, [00:19:00] price in a regular ceiling. And then six months later when it's being built, you start to realize there's things that are missing in the plans.

[CONSEQUENCES OF INCOMPLETENESS]

This translates to change orders. Now we have change orders on the project—unexpected costs. And sometimes they can be big.

The other thing about why the completeness matters in construction documents is delays during construction. If a detail's not clear on how to frame that ceiling, or how to build some other special elements such as a big, wide glass door system and what is holding it up and what is the threshold detail—that could go on and on. If there's no details there, things are either going to get done incorrectly or not done. And a lot of questions start coming up.

[: 00:20:00

The other thing about incomplete construction documents is permit submittal timing. When you go to submit a set of plans to the building permit or even the planning department ahead of the building permit, if things are not correct or things are not included or omitted, there's going to be a lot of back and forth between submitting to the planning department, getting questions back, answering questions, getting more questions, and back and forth. You could double and triple and even quadruple the amount of time to get approvals from your planning department and your building department.

That's why you care. Because you think it's going to take six weeks to get the permit and you hear these horror stories: "It took me six months to get permits." You start drilling down on asking questions. The tendency is to blame the building department, to blame the planning department.

[: 00:21:00

[THE "FIGURE IT OUT IN THE FIELD" MENTALITY]

There's this mentality—and sometimes it's subconscious during the design process by design professionals or designers that aren't professionals—where "we'll just figure that out in the field," right? If a detail isn't clear on how to put something together to build something by the designer, then that's going to work its way out into the field.

[: 00:22:00

We used to joke in the early days of my career where we would see the terms BOJ or FOJ: "Figure Out On Job" or "Build On Job," which was basically, "We don't know—we like this shelf in the middle of nowhere, floating in midair. Figure it out." There's no bracketry design, there's no blocking specified for the shelf. Nothing's in there. This was a chronic problem in our business early, early days till I finally added that to the list when we do our plan review checklist that we had created over all the years.

[: 00:23:00

[THE WINDOW SIZE DISASTER]

Here's another example of what could happen. I consulted on a project where the construction documents didn't specify the window sizes in three of the bedrooms. The architect had drawn—or the designer had drawn—the window symbol in each of the rooms and just said "window per code." Sounds minor, right? Wrong.

The contractor ordered standard three-foot-tall windows. The homeowner expected four-foot-tall windows to match their vision from the design development stage. And by the time this was discovered, the windows had been delivered, installed, and the siding was going on.

[: 00:24:00

Fixing that mistake? Huge. It didn't end up costing four or five times what the windows cost, but by the time you had to take those out, remove the siding, reframe the opening—so they have to reframe the opening, order new windows, wait for new windows, put new windows in—you can imagine that's a nightmare that happened. And that's because the plans were not thorough. The construction documents were not thorough enough.

[: 00:25:00

This is why having construction-ready plans—truly complete construction documents—is so critical. You are not just getting plans for the building department; you're creating that roadmap that determines whether your construction experience is smooth or stressful.

________________________________________

SEGMENT 3: Homeowner Action Items

[: 00:26:00

Since you don't know what you don't know, and you're probably not going to know what you need to know because you're not an architect and you're not a contractor, let's get tactical. Here are some specific things that you should be doing and asking during this phase to ensure you end up with complete, high-quality construction documents.

ACTION ITEM #1: Request a Document Checklist

Ask your architect: "Can you provide me with a checklist of everything that will be included in the construction documents?" This forces them to think comprehensively and give you a roadmap to review. It's also going to just give you an instinctual feeling: "Are we really organized here, or do I have to hyper-pay attention and get my contractor involved and say, 'Is everything here you need?'"

ACTION ITEM #2: Understanding the Review Timeline

Ask: "When will I receive the construction documents for review, and how much time will I have to review them before the permit submittal?" You need at least a week to review thoroughly. Don't let yourself be rushed.

[: 00:27:00

ACTION ITEM #3: Clarify What's Included vs. Excluded

Are the material specifications, equipment specifications, and scope of work included in the construction documents, or are they in a separate document? You need to know where to look for this critical information.

ACTION ITEM #4: Define "Substantially Complete"

Ask: "What does it mean when you say the construction documents are substantially complete? What percentage of specifications should be finalized?" This sets expectations and prevents the "we'll spec it later" trap. And we'll talk about how to handle deferred decisions later.

ACTION ITEM #5: Identify Your Review Responsibility

Ask: "What specifically should I be reviewing and confirming in the construction documents?" Your architect should give you clear guidance.

[: 00:28:00

[REAL-WORLD SUCCESS STORY]

I had a client who asked this question upfront, and her architect initially said construction documents would be "mostly done" in four weeks. When she asked what "mostly" meant, he admitted that the lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, and several finish materials weren't going to be specified yet. And she said, "Then we're not mostly done, are we? Let's make a plan to get those decisions made." That conversation saved her a bunch of money and change orders.

[: 00:29:00

These questions position you as an informed homeowner who understands that complete construction documents are your protection against budget overruns and construction chaos.

[SEGMENT SUMMARY]

Here's what you need to remember from this segment: Construction documents are comprehensive, code-compliant, buildable documents that include architectural plans, structural engineering, MEP systems, energy compliance, specifications, and construction details. The completeness of these documents directly determines your construction experience. And as the homeowner, you have specific questions you should be asking to ensure you're getting truly complete documents that will protect you from costly surprises.

[: 00:30:00

________________________________________

SEGMENT 4: The Assembly Process - What Your Architect Is Doing

All right, so your architect calls you up and says, "Great news! Design development is complete. Now we're moving into construction documents. We'll have your permit-ready plans in about three to six weeks." And you think, "Wait, three to six weeks? What takes that long?"

Let me pull back the curtain and show you exactly what's happening during this phase, because there's a ton of work going on that you never see.

[THE FIVE CORE ACTIVITIES]

[: 00:31:00

Activity One: Design Refinement. They are doing some cleanup. They're finalizing dimensions. They're resolving any lingering design questions from your final direction.

Activity Two: Detail Development. Creating construction details that show how things get built—foundations, roof assemblies, wall sections, custom elements within the plan. There's a whole set of plan pages called architectural details that go into the plans in the back of the architectural pages that supplement the architectural floor plans and elevations and work together with the structural engineering drawings.

Activity Three: Specification Integration. Taking all those material and equipment specs from design development and incorporating them into drawings or a specifications document. Sometimes that gets missed, and that causes all kinds of problems. And I think I've hit that point pretty hard.

g, but that's adding all the [: 00:32:00

Activity Five: Coordination. Making sure all the consultants' work—structural, MEP, energy, civil—aligns perfectly with your architectural plans.

Think of your architect like a conductor of an orchestra. I've mentioned this before. They've got the structural engineer working on the foundation details. They've got the MEP engineers laying out the ductwork and the energy consultant calculating the heat loss and specifying a lot of the equipment and making sure that all these pieces fit together perfectly.

If the HVAC ducts conflict with a structural beam, they have to resolve that now, not during construction. And I'm sure you've heard those stories.

[: 00:33:00

[THE COORDINATION CHALLENGE]

Now, one of the most critical parts of this process—and one that homeowners almost never see—is the coordination between all of your consultants. Let me explain why this matters so much.

Remember when I talked about assembling your dream team back in the design development episodes? This is where that team has to function like a well-oiled machine, and your architect is the project manager, making sure everyone is on the same page.

ductwork, like I mentioned, [: 00:34:00

An architect is orchestrating this. They've got their plans, they're overlaying all these different plans on top of each other. They're communicating and meeting and coming up with solutions. The good architects are planning this out ahead of time. I would have to say, though, this doesn't happen as often as it should. For the most part, a lot of this gets just handed off to the contractor and they have to fight with this during the project, and it causes a lot of aggravation, dissension, cost, and time-wasting.

go as smoothly as possible. [: 00:35:00

The really good ones find this stuff early on so that you don't have these cost overruns. You might get a great bid in the beginning: "Oh, we can do your job for $700,000," and they cranked it out based off the plans that you had. But really, the project's a $900,000 job. You just don't know it yet. And what's happening is that you're going to find that out during construction, which is miserable, instead of going back to the $700,000, getting the $900,000 bid at the beginning and making educated decisions.

This is why working with an experienced architect who has established relationships with quality consultants—why it matters so much. The coordination during construction documents can make or break your project.

[CODE COMPLIANCE INTEGRATION]

[: 00:36:00

I'm not going to dive too deep into that one, but let me tell you something that might surprise you. Code compliance information can account for 30 to 40% of what's on your construction documents. And this is stuff that simply wasn't necessary during the earlier design phases.

They're covering the complex building codes that are detailed and constantly updated. Architects and trade contractors and general contractors are always trying to keep up with the current codes, which can be a little challenging. And there are different types of codes for different projects and different cities. If you're working in multiple cities, there are even some different variations of the code.

[: 00:37:00

I'm going to go through the code compliance one pretty rapidly because it's really deeply integrated into the actual design work. This code compliance documentation is a huge part of what makes these building permit plans instead of just design drawings. And every note, every callout, every specification is there because the building code requires it.

[TIMELINE EXPECTATIONS]

All right, so now all of this work I've been describing—the refinement, the coordination, the code compliance—it takes time. So let's talk about realistic timelines and what you should expect.

[: 00:38:00

Small remodels—kitchens and bathrooms where you are doing some modifications to the structure—that could be two to four weeks.

Large remodels could be four to eight weeks.

New custom homes can sometimes take six to 12 weeks, sometimes even longer for larger, complex projects.

The factors that affect that timeline: the complexity, the consultant availability, the homeowner's responsiveness to questions—so that's you, that's you being engaged like I've talked about before—and then the jurisdiction requirements.

This phase should not feel rushed. Quality really matters here. A red flag is the architect says, "Ah, construction documents will only take a week or two"—unless it's a very simple project. Your architect should give you milestone updates during this phase.

[: 00:39:00

That is a sense of timeline for the construction documents aspect of a project. A thorough construction document process might feel slow, but remember, this is your last chance to get everything right before construction starts.

[: 00:40:00

________________________________________

SEGMENT 5: Managing Deferred Specifications

All right, so now here's where things get real for a lot of homeowners. What happens if you haven't made all your material and equipment decisions yet? Can you still move forward with construction documents? The answer is yes, but only if it's handled correctly.

We're going to talk about managing deferred specifications. The reality is, let's be honest: despite your best efforts during design development, you might reach the construction documents phase without having made every single material, equipment, and finish decision.

[: 00:41:00

There's going to be choices that directly affect cost and time that are dragging and preventing you from moving into construction documents. Because in a perfect world, all that's done, then you move into construction documents. In a real world, there's overlap, and we just don't want that overlap to be directly on top of each other. We want a small overlap, and that little piece that's overlapped, we want to micromanage the hell out of that to make sure that you don't end up sabotaging your own project. And I think I have an episode on that too.

[WHAT CAN AND CANNOT BE DEFERRED]

As we know, we have the materials, the equipment, and the scope of work as what I call specifications. And you know what can be deferred? What can be deferred within a system so that you don't undermine your project?

That could be finish materials that don't affect the structure, the framing, or the rough-in dimensions. That could be specific equipment models—maybe you can eventually tell somebody what you want. Cosmetic selections like paint colors, decorative hardware, and some lighting fixtures.

[: 00:42:00

In fact, that should have been decided back in design development when you were analyzing those options that you may have carved out so that you can make those decisions. Any type of built-in plumbing fixtures, the size of the HVAC equipment and locations, window and door sizes—you could even defer the window product for a little bit of time. And any scope of work that could affect the sequence of construction.

[: 00:43:00

[THE DEFERRED SPECIFICATIONS SYSTEM]

There's a way that you can manage—and hopefully you're helped by your architect or sometimes your contractor—by managing the deferred decisions, a deferred specification system. And that's one way: to create an allowance schedule or deferred decision list, right?

At least you now know what you don't know. So you have a list of all these things that you know you need to still figure out: the tile floor material that you still need to figure out, the glass style around the shower, or you need to figure out certain aspects that can be managed during construction. Okay.

[: 00:44:00

If you ever do allowances or a contractor/builder ever recommends that we do allowances, one thing I would really encourage you to do is make sure that is discussed and how much we're allowing for each. If we're going to be allowing a per-square-foot price for tile or hardwood flooring or fixtures, that needs to be discussed in detail to make sure that it is a reasonable allowance. Otherwise, you'll end up getting in trouble from a budget standpoint.

Establishing the deadlines when each decision must be made. Document who is responsible for making the selection. Specify acceptable parameters: size ranges, capacity requirements, quality levels. And include this schedule in your construction documents and contract.

[: 00:45:00

[00:46:00] So this should be talked about. Here's what you do not want to happen: vague specifications like "owner to select" with no allowance, no parameters, no deadline. That's a recipe for disputes. Your contractor prices it out at $50 per square foot. You're thinking $150 per square foot, and boom—you've got a change order battle on your hands.

Managing deferred specifications is all about having a system. When done right, you can defer some decisions without creating chaos. When done wrong or not done at all, deferred specifications become the source of every change order and dispute during construction and often a big contributor to delays in construction.

[: 00:47:00

We used to build that right into the project schedule—what we used to call a procurement aspect on the front part of the schedule, the top part of the schedule. All the materials had to be ordered, what was confirmed and what was not. And there's even applications now out there that help everybody manage that. And the good contractors have web-based programs that can do that and alert everybody of the things that need to be specified and when, so that they can keep—so the tile guy doesn't show up and doesn't have any material.

Yes, you can defer some specifications, but only with clear documentation, allowances, deadlines, and parameters.

________________________________________

SEGMENT 6: Your Role as the Final Checkpoint

[: 00:48:00

Requesting regular progress updates. Ask your architect: "Can we schedule a brief check-in call once a week during construction documents so I know how things are progressing and can answer any questions quickly?"

Clarify the consultant coordination. Ask: "How are you coordinating with the structural engineer, MEP consultants, and other specialists? Will I see a coordination review before the final documents are complete?" In other words, are you being involved in that? Do you need to be involved in that? Sometimes you don't, but asking the question will sometimes uncover questions they wanted to ask you but never got around to or never thought to ask you.

Understand the code compliance approach. "What are the main code compliance challenges for my project, and how are you addressing them in the construction documents?"

[: 00:49:00

Request a deferred specifications template. Ask: "Can you provide me with a template or format for tracking the deferred specifications that will be included in the construction documents?"

Review the allowance schedule and establish decision deadlines.

These action items transform you from a passive participant into an active project manager. And now you know how you can participate. That's the idea here with The Awakened Homeowner podcast: to get you that next level of information so you can then participate, so you can ask some questions.

[: 00:50:00

[SEGMENT SUMMARY]

In closing on this segment: your architect during construction documents is refining the design details. They're developing construction-specific information, coordinating all the consultants, integrating code compliance requirements, and compiling everything into a permit-ready package.

This process typically takes weeks to months depending on the project complexity. And when material, equipment, or scope of work specifications can't be finalized, they must be managed through a formal deferred specification system with allowances, parameters, and deadlines—never just left vague. Biggest one of the biggest problems.

Your job is to stay engaged, ask the right questions, and ensure deferred decisions are documented properly.

et's talk about your role as [: 00:51:00

________________________________________

SEGMENT 7: What You're Actually Reviewing

All right, so your role at the final checkpoint. Your architect has been working for weeks, maybe months, compiling these construction documents. The consultants have all submitted their work. Everything is coordinated. Code compliance is documented. And now your architect sends you an email: "Construction documents are complete and ready for your review."

This is it. This is your last checkpoint before construction starts. And I'm going to tell you exactly what you need to review, what questions you need to ask, and how to make sure you're actually ready to move forward.

First, let's be clear about what you're not reviewing. You are not, as a homeowner, checking the structural calculations. You're not verifying code compliance. You're not making sure the HVAC equipment is sized correctly. That's what you hired all these licensed professionals to do. So what are you reviewing?

[YOUR REVIEW RESPONSIBILITIES]

[: 00:52:00

Design intent. Does this match what you thought you were getting from the design development stage?

Room sizes. What you discussed and approved.

Layout accuracy. Are the doors, the windows, the fixtures in the right locations? I know this sounds crazy, but you'd be surprised how things get moved around in plans during all of this work that's going on. Double-checking it from your eyes, from your perspective, what you care most about—that's how you're going to help.

Material specifications. Are the materials you selected accurately documented?

Equipment specifications.

Finish schedules. Do the finish schedules match your selections? Sometimes, as I've mentioned, architects will create a finish schedule—it's like a table format. And do those match what you really want? Again, you'd be surprised how sometimes they don't.

[: 00:53:00

And then, have all the deferred specifications been identified so that everybody can stare at that and figure out what to do?

You're not responsible for the technical accuracy of engineering calculations, code compliance, the coordination between the consultants. At some point you have to put your faith and trust in these people. But it doesn't hurt if you catch one thing. It could save you thousands of dollars and months of time sometimes.

And you're not obviously checking about construction methods because you have no idea of how these things go together. That's again, what the professionals are for.

The construction document review is about ensuring design intent is preserved from your experience prior in the schematic and the design development stage and ultimately into the construction documents.

[: 00:54:00

So you just carefully looking through the plans and the room sizes can sometimes uncover those things. Maybe you wanted double doors to go into the new master suite, but now it's a single door because the structural engineer needed more solid wall. Nobody told you. You see what I'm talking about?

[THE STEP-BY-STEP REVIEW PROCESS]

Now you know what you're reviewing, but how do you actually do this review? Let me give you more of a methodical approach.

Reviewing construction documents can feel overwhelming, and you're looking at 40 or 50 pages of detailed drawings. But if you approach this methodically, you can do a thorough review without losing your mind.

[: 00:55:00

Review the floor plans. That's your 2D plans where you're looking down. Just kind of walk through each room mentally, right? "Here I am traveling around my house." Then check the dimensions and the door swings and the window locations and the room labels that match your intentions. Look for anything else that seems different from your design development stage.

You could also ask for an updated set of 3D renderings to make sure that there are no other ways that you can identify problems from the design development to the construction drawings, I should say. That is a way for you to identify problems from design development to the construction document stage.

[: 00:56:00

Review all the schedules—meaning the window schedule, those are the table formats, and the materials and the finishes. Just making sure the exterior color of the windows is black, not white. I'm talking about fundamental basics here to make sure there's not some major mistakes that could occur.

Review your specification document. Read through the material specifications thoroughly that your architect has prepared. And then make a little list, make a punch list of all the things that you want to review with your architect.

[: 00:57:00

[THE CRITICAL QUESTIONS TO ASK]

Now, as you're doing this review, there are specific questions you should be asking your architect—questions that can save you tens of thousands of dollars in massive headaches. Let me tell you what they are.

When you send your review notes and questions back to your architect, make sure these specific questions are included. These are the ones that uncover hidden problems before they become expensive disasters.

Question 1: "Could you walk me through any changes from the design development plans?"

Question 2: "Are there any specifications or scope items marked 'to be determined' or 'owner to select' without allowances?"

: [: 00:58:00

This is an important one because sometimes changes occur between the coordinating of all the consultants, but again, nobody really brought that to your attention. And I guarantee you there's something that's been changed. And once that question jogs everybody's memory, they're going to be able to go, "Oh yeah, let me tell you about this." And then that can get translated back to your contractor or at least called to the attention of the contractor when they're doing their pricing and their scheduling of the project.

Question 4: "What items in the construction documents are subject to interpretation or weren't captured in the last budget checkpoint?" That's a good one.

Question 5: "Are there any assumptions built into these plans that I should be aware of?"

[: 00:59:00

Question 6: "Could you point out anything that changed because of code requirements that may affect my design vision?"

Question 7: "What questions or information do you anticipate from the contractor during construction?"

b—if you ask the question, [: 01:00:00

So asking those questions and then learning more about why that is can at least position you to say, "Okay, let's roll the dice on that one," or "No, let's see if we can figure that out now because I don't want to have to answer that later."

These critical questions during your final design review turn you from a passive plan recipient into an active project manager who's protecting their investment. Just be thinking about it from your perspective and thinking about it logically.

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SEGMENT 8: Final Action Items and Approval

Now let me give you some specific action items for your checkpoint phase.

All right, here's your action plan for this final checkpoint before construction starts. Do these things and you'll sleep well knowing you've done your due diligence.

Schedule adequate review time. You tell your architect you want a week to review all this.

Print out the key pages or have them provide those to you.

Review it in multiple sessions.

Use that comparison method. Ask your architect: "Can you provide the final design development plans alongside the construction documents so I can compare them side by side?"

Create a punch list.

Request a review meeting.

Document your approval of the plans.

[: 01:02:00

Now this is—hopefully you've got some kind of relationship with a contractor or contractors at this stage of the game because you've gone through some of my suggestions through the earlier design process stages. If you haven't, now is the time to reach out to potential contractors and say, "Hey, we're wrapping this up. I'd really like to see if you'd be interested in our project, and if you have any questions on the plans, here you go." And also get a complete digital set of the plans too, so you can have that in your file.

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[FINAL SEGMENT SUMMARY]

Your role during the construction document phase is to review for design intent, verify that your material and your equipment selections are accurately documented, check that room sizes and layouts match your expectations, ensure deferred specifications have proper allowances and parameters, and ask critical questions that uncover assumptions or ambiguities before they become expensive problems.

You're not checking the technical accuracy. That's what licensed professionals do. But you are the final checkpoint ensuring these plans reflect what you actually want to build.

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CLOSING: Next Steps & Series Wrap-Up

And now comes a strategic decision that will affect your timeline, your budget certainty, and your project risk: When do you select your contractor and when do you submit for permits?

er dive into what you can do [: 01:05:00

Our next episode is directly related to this episode, but we're going to talk about strategic decision-making. And you have different paths to take, different stepping stones to take across that river I keep talking about when it comes to selecting your contractor, getting estimates. And it's all going to tie back to your level of risk tolerance.

So that's what I have for you today. This is the final step in the design process called construction documents. And we're going to supplement this episode with what I feel is really important, and that is how you strategize the next step in selecting your contractor.

I'm Bill Reid, your home building coach from The Awakened Homeowner. I'm excited to dive into the next episode so you can truly be empowered.

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Total Duration: Approximately 65 minutes Word Count: ~12,500 words